HIGHLIGHTS

Elizabethan Toy Theatre
Mr. EJ Legaspi, HS English Teacher

Posted Saturday, 20-Jan-2007 9:08 AM

      Toy theatres originated from Victorian-era England and enjoyed popularity as an accompaniment of the most successful plays of that period. They were collected by both adults and children and served as a remembrance of the famous actors and actresses of the 19th century and their most memorable performances.

      Serving as promotional materials as well, toy theatres are usually made of paper, which are then pasted on cardboard. They tend to be very colorful and meticulously detailed. These toy theatres also came with condensed versions of the plays that they are depicting. Children could then re-enact the plays with their cut-out portraits of the actors and their characters. Famous Britons, such as Charles Dickens and Sir Winston Churchill, are known to have played with toy theatres as children.

      This particular toy theatre depicting an Elizabethan-style theatre is the work of a certain Peter Jackson. This artist, like his namesake, has an incredible eye for detail. He masterfully reconstructs a model of what a presentation of a play in an English Renaissance Theatre would most likely look like – in this case William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

      A typical public performance of a play in the Elizabethan and Jacobean era would probably take place in an open-air playhouse such as the one being depicted here. Although it is not shown in the model entirely, most theatres then resembled a “wooden O.” The stage itself is called an “apron stage” because of its shape and the way it juts out into the audience. There would be audiences in the upper galleries and many would be in the yard, standing at the foot of the stage. Other intricate details to look out for include the costumes of the people, the signs on the stage and the presence of a certain guy named William Shakespeare.

      The Elizabethan Toy Theatre purchased from The Bate Collection of Musical Instruments Oxford, Oxfordshire United Kingdom may be viewed at the high school LRC during library hours.

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